"and an effective firearm, simple in mechanism, should be in every home."

As To Pistol Toting.

There Are Times when It Is Justifiable And Even Commendable

   A reader takes exception to a recent article in which "packing a gun"--or "toting a pistol," if you please--is considered as a habit that fosters suicides.

   "In many parts of the South," writes our correspondent, "our women are not safe from attack on the part of criminal negroes unless there are firearms about the house. There have been numerous cases where the possession of a pistol, and a knowledge of how to use it, has saved a woman from a fate worse than death."

   The point is well taken, and gets at the crux of a situation which might have been more thoroughly discussed in the article mentioned. The practice condemned is not that of possessing a pistol in the home, or of carrying one abroad when there is likely to be real necessity for its use, as sometimes happens; but the very prevalent habit of carrying revolvers at such times and under such circumstances that they are not at all necessary.

   In the majority of such cases they are carried rather in the foolish hope that there will be some occasion or excuse for their display or use than because of any real danger which exists--in a spirit of silly vanity, which is none the less dangerous because of its silliness. When a couple of deluded creatures who share this sensationalism have a falling out, over some very trivial--as frequently happens--their first thought is not to fight it out with their fists; but to pull a gun and kill. Every village and town in the south has its quota of youths of this description; not as a rule "bad" boys in any general sense, but lacking in a sense of values. The village quarrel--which started over nothing important, and would naturally end in a rough and tumble fight, if the brawlers were not armed--frequently winds up with a fatal shooting simply because the brawlers happen to have pistols with them.

   The matter mentioned by our correspondent is in a different category altogether. Not only is the proper place of the pistol in the home--since its presence there implies that it is to be used for purposes of legitimate defense--but the acquisition of pistols for such purposes is to be advised, instead of merely excused. Every man should see that there is one in his home, and that his wife and daughters know how to use it quickly and effectively. What our correspondent says about the necessity for their use in this way is, unfortunately, only too true in many parts of the South; and an effective firearm, simple in mechanism, should be in every home.--Don Marquis in Uncle Remus's Magazine.

[The Suwannee Democrat, Live Oak, Florida, Friday, April 02, 1909. Part Two, Vol. XII No. 41 Pg. 14]

    Apparently the author of the above is operating under the mistaken impression that evil just visits one in the home. In addition to thinking that one can magically have a general idea as to when one will need to bear arms away from home. As well as forgetting that the right secured is in order to not just keep, but BEAR arms. And this, in order that We The People are "at all times armed" in order to be able to resist enemies; both foreign and domestic.

   Punishment for private affrays are what is the real cure. As well as education on how, and when the use of firearms is justified. Punishment for abuse or misuse of firearms is the Constitutional remedy. Not deprivation of a Constitutionally secured right.